Norton Rose Fulbright

With more than 800 lawyers based in the United States and another 3,000 around the globe, Norton Rose Fulbright is a legal force. The firm has dozens of offices across six continents and is particularly well-known for its Energy practice.

Teaming Up to Go Global

Norton Rose Fulbright is the product of some of the largest law firm combinations of the 2010s, with each legacy firm having a long history. United Kingdom-based Norton Rose traces its history to the late 1700s, when attorney Robert Charsley hung out his shingle in London. Over the years, the firm expanded through organic growth and mergers to become one of the 10 largest firms in the world by 2012. In the United States, R.C. Fulbright founded a firm in Houston in 1919, and Leon Jaworski joined the firm in 1931. Fulbright & Jaworski garnered a strong reputation in the energy, financial, transportation, and healthcare industries. In 2013, the two firms formed the megafirm Norton Rose Fulbright with more than 3,000 lawyers worldwide. In 2017, Norton Rose Fulbright gained another 300 attorneys experienced in project finance, energy, insurance, and product liability through its merger with New York-based Chadbourne & Parke.

Global Industry Focus

Norton Rose Fulbright serves major corporations, financial institutions, and innovative startups across the globe, with particular expertise in financial institutions; energy, infrastructure, and resources; transport; technology and innovation; life sciences; and healthcare matters. Through its global risk advisory group, Norton Rose Fulbright combines its attorneys’ industry experience with their knowledge of legal, regulatory, compliance, and governance issues to provide clients with practical solutions to the legal and regulatory risks facing their businesses. According to the firm, Norton Rose Fulbright operates in accordance with its global business principles of quality, unity, and integrity. 

A fixture in Vault’s top 10 for Energy, Oil & Gas, Norton Rose Fulbright is a go-to firm for energy matters. The firm’s Energy team spans the globe and counsels clients on issues relating to oil and gas, power and utilities, renewables, and water. The team necessarily takes a multidisciplinary approach to handle its clients’ wide-ranging issues through its understanding of antitrust and intellectual property matters; environmental, tax, and contract law; and M&A.

More than Billables

At Norton Rose Fulbright, life isn’t just about billables—the firm offers a host of perks, including a variety of wellness programs. When they need a break from the stresses of lawyering, associates can turn to the firm’s meditation and mindfulness programs. For those with health on their mind, the firm offers biometric screenings, heart health resources, and on-site flu shots, as well as step and healthy weight challenges. 

The firm also looks out for its lawyers’ financial health, with both student loan refinancing resources and personal financial planning resources for help with decisions on mortgages, lines of credit, and capital loans.

• Watergate: In 1973, Leon Jaworski of Fulbright & Jaworski (which later became Norton Rose Fulbright) was appointed to serve as Special Prosecutor for the Watergate investigation, which eventually led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

   

• Texas Blue Law: in the 1980s, the firm represented a hardware store chain being sued for defying the Texas Blue Law which kept most stores in Texas closed on Sundays. Firm lawyers argued the law was unconstitutional, and the judge agreed. While on appeal, authorities stopped enforcing the law, allowing Texans to shop on Sundays. The Texas Legislature then repealed the law, making the appeal moot.

• Mansfield Rule Certified Plus 6.0, Diversity Lab
• The American Lawyer’s 2024 Diversity Scorecard – Top 25
• Law 360”s 2024 Diversity Snapshot – 11th
• Corporate Equality Index, perfect score of 100 percent for policies and practices related to
• LGBT workplace equality, Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 2016 – 2022